Work begins to repair wall

Police at the scene of a landslide at Wigan North Western train station, as a wall of a disused subway collapsed.

Published:13:00Saturday 03 December 2016

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Work to repair a wall that collapsed outside Wigan North Western station may take several weeks to complete.

The wall, which was part of disused subway, collapsed on Thursday morning causes chaos on the railways and the roads as the station was evacuated and roads closed while a structural assessment was carried out.

While the trains returned to normal by early afternoon, Queen Street, where the wall is situated, remained closed throughout Thursday, causing long queues on all routes into Wigan town centre.

A full safety assessment was carried out by Network Rail engineers and work to clear up the debris began on Thursday afternoon.

By Friday morning, one lane of Queen Street had been reopened and traffic had returned to normal.

Network Rail said it would now begin the task of rebuilding the wall so that it was more structurally sound.

The disused subway had led up to a platform at North Western which was no longer in use and had been blocked off and filled several decades ago.

Wigan Council said in its latest roadworks bulletin that a small part of one lane of Queen Street is still coned off but both lane are open.

The bulletin reads: “Network Rail are carrying out emergency work to excavate spoil at the rear of a railway retaining wall, after part of the wall and arch collapsed. To do this safely they have closed one lane of Queen Street. The work could last until 23 December 2016.”

No one was injured when the wall gave way at around 8.40am but several parked cars were hit by falling rubble and significant disruption was caused for residents. Police closed off Wallgate and the surrounding roads to both vehicles and pedestrians and North Western was evacuated.

Network Rail apologised for any inconvenience caused by the collapse and resulting road closures and train cancellations.